The present invention relates to electric typewriters, word processors, computer output printers, and similar printing devices. The present invention provides a novel printing apparatus and a novel method of operating printing apparatus whereby the noise resulting from a printing operation is materially reduced.
Conventional impact printers generally employ a single, high-power hammer stroke of short duration to transfer ink from an inking ribbon to a copy paper. The transfer is accomplished by a single impact of the hammer against the ribbon, the hammer striking the ribbon only once, but being driven at high power. Because the noise generated during the printing operation is dependent on the peak power delivered to the hammer and dissipated during impaction, these conventional impact printers tend to be undesirably noisy.
While impactless printers have been developed which eliminate the noise problem, these printers fail to attain the printing quality attained by impact printers.